Lincolnshire Police are aiming to recover more than £4m in criminal benefit from the Rooney family as part of Operation Pottery.

Nine members of the family of Lincoln travellers were jailed for a combined total of 79 years and 7 months after being convicted of forcing vulnerable people to work or cheating residents out of their property.

Some of the Rooneys' 18 victims, who were aged between 18 and 63, had learning disabilities or mental health issues, or were dependent on alcohol or drugs.

One man was made to dig his own grave and threatened with a lifetime of servitude to the Rooneys.

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Operation Pottery started in September 2014 and trials of the Rooney family took place from late 2016 through to 2018.

Overall, criminal benefits of £4,174,827.54 have been identified and confiscation orders for £1,083,403.61 have been made by the police.

Some of the funds recovered will go towards compensating the Rooney's victims, say police.

Criminal benefit is the amount of money identified through someone’s specific offending and in some cases their criminal lifestyle. The amount is determined on the assets of the offenders. A confiscation order is then made by the court and the offender is given a period of time to pay the full amount. In addition, a prison sentence is given should the full amount not be paid in that time.

Chief Superintendent Nikki Mayo said: “I never thought that almost five years ago we would be in a position to hand back money, in terms of wages earned and monies stolen, to these victims. This is an incredibly proud moment for the investigation team and myself.

“This six-figure confiscation order is an excellent end to Operation Pottery and proof that modern slavery doesn’t pay.

"With all proceeds of crime cases, we do continue to work hard and identify assets and cash to ensure as much of the criminal benefit is paid as possible.”